I wanted right off the bat to let the family know what had happened, especially Kevin, because I worked with him in a platoon and I knew that he and the family all needed to know what had happened," O'Neal testified. "I was quite appalled that when I was actually able to speak with Kevin, I was ordered not to tell him."

Asked who gave him the order, O'Neal replied that it came from his battalion commander, then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey.

"He basically just said ... 'Do not let Kevin know, that he's probably in a bad place knowing his brother's dead,' " O'Neal told House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman. "And he made it known I would get in trouble, sir, if I spoke with Kevin on it being fratricide."

The military instead released a "manufactured narrative" detailing how Pat Tillman died leading a courageous counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass, Kevin Tillman told the committee. (Watch Kevin Tillman accuse the military of lying )

Also Tuesday, former Pfc. Jessica Lynch told the House panel that the military lied about her capture.

Lynch testified that after her vehicle was attacked in Iraq in March 2003, she suffered a mangled spinal column, broken arm, crushed foot, shattered femur and even a sexual assault.

But it only added insult to injury, literally, when she returned to her parents' home in West Virginia, which "was under siege by media all repeating the story of the little girl 'Rambo' from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting," Lynch said. (Watch Lynch set the record straight )

"It was not true," she said before gently chiding the military. "The truth is always more heroic than the hype."

Waxman, D-California, said the military "invented" tales about Tillman and Lynch. (Watch Lynch describe her bond with the Tillman family )

"The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth," Waxman said. "That didn't happen for two of the most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars."

Tillman bristled at the military claim that the initial report was merely misleading.

Clearly resentful, he told the panel that writing a field report stating that his brother had been "transferred to an intensive care unit for continued CPR after most of his head had been taken off by multiple .556 rounds is not misleading."

Lynch's testimony began with a recollection of the March 23, 2003, attack and her purported rescue nine days later.

As she and her fellow 11 soldiers drove through Nassiriya, Iraq, they noticed armed men standing in the streets and on rooftops. Three soldiers were quickly killed when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into their vehicle, Lynch said.

The other eight died in the ensuing fighting or from injuries suffered during the fighting, she said. Lynch later woke up at Saddam Hussein General Hospital.

"When I awoke, I did not know where I was. I could not move. I could not call for help. I could not fight," she said, explaining she had a six-inch gash in her head and numerous broken bones. "The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans."

She was distraught to come home and find herself billed as a hero when two of her fellow soldiers had fought bravely until the firefight's end and another had died after picking up soldiers and removing them from harm's way.

"The American people are capable of determining their own ideals for heroes, and they don't need to be told elaborate lies," she said. "I had the good fortune to come home and to tell the truth. Many soldiers, like Pat Tillman, did not have that opportunity.

"The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype," she said.

Lynch became a celebrity after U.S. troops filmed what they said was a daring raid on the hospital. Hospital staffers, however, said there were no Iraqi troops at the hospital when the purported rescue took place.

In the March 23, 2003, attack, Lynch, the Army claimed, was shot and stabbed during a fierce gun battle with Iraqi troops that left 11 of her comrades dead. It was later learned that Lynch never fired a shot during the firefight because her gun was jammed with sand.
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So ask yourself this question, why should we believe our GOVT reports that arabs conducted and carried out 9/11 all by themselves ?

Yes you are correct, but who do myou think tell the media what to report .

Thats a good point. However, I feel that whatever the media is told they will say it however they want too. We never see or hear the pictures and stories of those who are happy that we got Saddam out of Iraq. I've read letters from soldier who have been at Guatanamo Bay and they say that the toture and rumors of the like that are in the news aren't true.

At the same time, the military may have wanted some support for our soldiers so they create a hero that will inspire people to care (Tillman and Lynch for example). It was done in WWII with the soldiers who planted the flag on Iwo Jima. Those who really gave their all and were the true hero's are buried on that island, and the people who just put the flag up got a hero's welcome.

And to this day, Jessica Lynch is the only one who will even mention the other soldiers who went down in that attack she was in. There was a female soldier who did go down fighting, but it wasn't Lynch. Where's the big news about them? I was in the end of my Army basic training when the war started, I'm so glad I'm out now.

Thats a good point. However, I feel that whatever the media is told they will say it however they want too. We never see or hear the pictures and stories of those who are happy that we got Saddam out of Iraq. I've read letters from soldier who have been at Guatanamo Bay and they say that the toture and rumors of the like that are in the news aren't true.

I mean, it's not like they've been caught torturing on a large scale before (Abu Ghraib).